The prepositional phrases ‘with’ + instrumental in Croatian

Sa？etak The aim of this paper is to define the prepositional phrase s ‘with’ + instrumental as a complement, an adjunct or as a noun postmodifier, and to define which semantic role is assigned to it. The analysis improves verb valency description and case description in the Croatian language. The prepositional phrase is a complement of the reciprocal verbs, which require two participants and which are divided into several groups according to their meaning (verbs of physical conflict, intimate physical contact, verbal conflict, discussion, conversation, competition, play, amalgamate verbs, split verbs, verbs of overlapping between two sides). With those verbs, the role of the Agent–Theme has been assigned to the prepositional complement. The prepositional phrase as a complement also comes with aspectual verbs and verbs of lingering and rushing, in which case the association with the comitative is less obvious. In that case, the prepositional phrase can be defined as a predicate complement without the semantic role, or the prepositional complement with the role Theme. The prepositional phrase is an adjunct with verbs that usually do not involve two participants, and it has the comitative role. As an adjunct, it also appears with the meaning of the manner or time. As a noun postmodifier, it is used to describe a feature of the Agent or Patient’s body part, or a feature of the object belonging to the Agent, Theme or Patient. The paper describes the possibilities of alternation of the prepositional phrase with other phrases and the semantic consequences caused by those alternations